Car Buyers Stretch Loan Payments To Record Lengths To Get In Pricier Vehicles
Average auto-loan lengths are at nearly 70 months and payments are at the highest this year, says Edmunds.
MarketWatch
July 5, 2017
As car buyers’ obsession with bigger, pricier vehicles grows, so does their willingness to take longer to pay for them, says new analysis from Edmunds.com.
The average auto-loan length reached an all-time high of 69.3 months in June. That’s 6.8% longer than five years ago, said the site that provides auto industry statistics and news.
The average amount that buyers financed was hit with the biggest uptick for the year last month, at $30,945, or up $631 from May. The financing trend also lead to the highest monthly payments for the year, now averaging $517, which increased from $510 in May.
“Stretching out loan terms to secure a monthly payment they’re comfortable with is becoming buyers’ go-to way to get the cars they want, equipped the way they want them,” said Jessica Caldwell, Edmunds executive director of industry analysis.
Of course car depreciation can mean that borrowers find themselves in an upside-down loan pretty quickly.
“It’s financially risky, leaving borrowers exposed to being upside down on their vehicles for a large chunk of their loans, but it’s also a sign that consumers are still confident enough in the economy to spend more on their vehicles and commit to paying for them longer,” Caldwell added.
Financial terms, including still-low, though rising, prevailing interest rates are adding to loan demand. Edmunds found that the annual percentage rate dipped just below 5% in June for the first time since February. Still, the APR has increased 5.7% from a year ago and 13.6% from five years ago.
Credit market observers continue to keep a close eye on bubbling risks in the auto-loan market, especially for the riskiest, or subprime, borrowers whose debt loads in general are back at levels near the 2008-09 financial crisis. They’re also watching the sharp rise in non-bank lenders who are extending loans to lower-rated borrowers. But credit tracker Experian said in an early-June report that the lending market tightened early year as lenders became pickier and car-loan delinquencies fell.
The average credit score of borrowers of a new-vehicle loan rose from 712 in the first quarter of last year to 717 in the first quarter of 2017, Experian said. For used-car loans, the scores rose from 645 to 652 in the same time frame.
“There’s always someone who claims that the (subprime auto loan) bubble is bursting,” Experian said then. “The truth is, lenders are making rational decisions based on shifts in the market. When delinquencies started to go up, the lending industry shifted to more creditworthy customers.”
Higher prices overall appeared to turn off some would-be buyers from taking the plunge with a new car last month. Auto sales continued to slide in June, industry data issued Monday showed. Car buyers reacted to higher vehicle prices, while Detroit backed away from dumping unwanted inventory into rental-car lots, which helped keep prices up.
As car buyers’ obsession with bigger, pricier vehicles grows, so does their willingness to take longer to pay for them, says new analysis from Edmunds.com.
The average auto-loan length reached an all-time high of 69.3 months in June. That’s 6.8% longer than five years ago, said the site that provides auto industry statistics and news.
The average amount that buyers financed was hit with the biggest uptick for the year last month, at $30,945, or up $631 from May. The financing trend also lead to the highest monthly payments for the year, now averaging $517, which increased from $510 in May.
“Stretching out loan terms to secure a monthly payment they’re comfortable with is becoming buyers’ go-to way to get the cars they want, equipped the way they want them,” said Jessica Caldwell, Edmunds executive director of industry analysis.
Of course car depreciation can mean that borrowers find themselves in an upside-down loan pretty quickly.
“It’s financially risky, leaving borrowers exposed to being upside down on their vehicles for a large chunk of their loans, but it’s also a sign that consumers are still confident enough in the economy to spend more on their vehicles and commit to paying for them longer,” Caldwell added.
Financial terms, including still-low, though rising, prevailing interest rates are adding to loan demand. Edmunds found that the annual percentage rate dipped just below 5% in June for the first time since February. Still, the APR has increased 5.7% from a year ago and 13.6% from five years ago.
Credit market observers continue to keep a close eye on bubbling risks in the auto-loan market, especially for the riskiest, or subprime, borrowers whose debt loads in general are back at levels near the 2008-09 financial crisis. They’re also watching the sharp rise in non-bank lenders who are extending loans to lower-rated borrowers. But credit tracker Experian said in an early-June report that the lending market tightened early year as lenders became pickier and car-loan delinquencies fell.
The average credit score of borrowers of a new-vehicle loan rose from 712 in the first quarter of last year to 717 in the first quarter of 2017, Experian said. For used-car loans, the scores rose from 645 to 652 in the same time frame.
“There’s always someone who claims that the (subprime auto loan) bubble is bursting,” Experian said then. “The truth is, lenders are making rational decisions based on shifts in the market. When delinquencies started to go up, the lending industry shifted to more creditworthy customers.”
Higher prices overall appeared to turn off some would-be buyers from taking the plunge with a new car last month. Auto sales continued to slide in June, industry data issued Monday showed. Car buyers reacted to higher vehicle prices, while Detroit backed away from dumping unwanted inventory into rental-car lots, which helped keep prices up.
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